Damsels in Distress (26 page)

‘Wu…’ she panted, the air evacuating her lungs in a rush, leaving her gasping, ‘wu… one, thank you, Aunt Alice!’ she managed somehow, trying to squeeze back the tears that threatened to spring forth.

‘You see, Melody,’ Alice mused, ‘you can remember if you put your mind to it. Now do keep your legs straight. I can tolerate that silly trembling, but if you kick back you will have to take the stroke over again.’

There was another stomach churning whistle and another heart stopping
thwuck
! This time the cane cracked across Melody’s thigh tops, hard below her sulcus, another line of fire setting her gasping again, and she managed to stammer her thanks to Alice between staccato inhalations.

After the third stroke, a pitiless wallop across the upper part of Melody’s bottom, the blonde girl managed to thank her tormentress once more, despite some agonised snorting.

‘Oh yes, that’s very nice,’ Alice cooed. ‘The stripes really stand out on that peachy skin of yours, and the white lingerie really sets it all off. Why, Melody my dear, your pose exposes everything, you shameless little trollop. Is that something glistening I see there? You had better not be enjoying this, my girl.’

The respite was as brief as it was disturbing, then another stroke cracked brutally across her thighs just above her stocking tops, banishing everything except a wave of sizzling pain.

‘I’m waiting…’

Through the fog of agony Melody became aware of a foot tapping impatiently. ‘Fu-fu-four!’ she managed. ‘Thu-thu-thank you, Aunt Alice.’

‘Really, Melody, I expected more self-control, and by the way, that was perilously close to a kick back with your right foot. I will let it go on this occasion, but next time keep it quite still or you will earn a repeat.’

The next stroke thrashed across the middle of her bottom. Melody gripped the legs of the horse with all her strength and shrieked. It was too much. It was unbearable. It was not a punishment, it was torture.

But somehow she sobbed her count and thanks to Alice.

‘That’s lovely, Melody. The welts are really pretty and dramatic. You do have such a gorgeous arse, as resilient as rubber yet so peachy and round, with such lovely flawless flesh.’ She giggled musically. ‘Well, it was flawless when I started on it. It’s somewhat tram-lined and stripy now, of course. They were good strokes, if I do say so myself.

‘Now, are you ready to continue, Melody?’

There was a brief silence, broken only by Melody sniffling and sobbing.

‘Hello? Earth to Melody, are you ready to continue?’

‘Oh please, Alice, it hurts so mu-mu-much.’

Alice giggled again. ‘But it’s supposed to hurt, you silly little minx. It wouldn’t do you much good if it didn’t. And anyway, that’s
Aunt
Alice to you. How many times must I remind you? I’m afraid your tariff has gone up again for that oversight. I would stop feeling sorry for myself and concentrate on keeping still and keeping count, if I were you.’

With that she placed the cane across Melody’s tender under-bum, and the blonde girl tensed. The cane lifted. Melody stopped breathing. There was a sinister low whistle and another horrible
thwuck
!

Melody opened her pretty mouth but no sound came out.

‘But I can’t go out like this,’ she protested. ‘Um, I mean I can’t go out like this, Aunt Alice.’

The lady shook her dark hair, as if disbelieving what she was hearing. ‘I don’t know, Melody. First you complain about the clothes I give you, saying they are too frumpy, so I give you something nice and clingy and you complain about that too.’

She threw her hands up at the impossibility of it all, while Melody clenched her fists and tried to think of what to say. The dress, if you could call it that, for it was more like a vest, was made of clingy pale blue cotton. It was so tight it seemed several sizes to small to her, and it barely reached the lacy tops of her stockings.

‘Do you want to go back to the exercise room?’ Alice asked pleasantly, and Melody felt her bottom clench at the suggestion. The previous night she’d had to sleep on her stomach and her bottom still felt as if it had been grilled. Melody looked back at her reflection in the full-length mirror, trying to ease down the short skirt. It was summer, she told herself, and lots of girls wore skimpy outfits in the summer, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…

In fact, it was worse than she could have had imagined. It started as she walked across the park to college, followed all the way by wolf whistles and lewd suggestions from leering youths. One male cyclist actually fell off his bike and crashed into the zoo railings. Melody blushed continuously and kept her eyes straight ahead, trying futilely to smooth down the minuscule dress’s hem.

College was even worse, of course, because she knew people there. Female reactions varied from the hostile to the astonished, and males flocked around her like moths around a flame. In psychology tutorial even Dr Ebsom kept losing his train of thought and casting furtive glances at her. Melody knew she was making it worse by fidgeting, but couldn’t help herself; the plastic seats were really hard and her bottom was still really, really sore.

‘Bloody hell, Melody, what’s happened to you?’ Toby asked wide-eyed when she met him in the library as usual.

‘It’s Alice,’ she told him. ‘She made me wear this because I complained about the unflattering stuff she usually gives me to wear.’

Toby shook his head. ‘What do you mean, she
made
you? Why don’t you just say no?’

‘You don’t know her, Toby; it’s not that easy. The trouble with Alice is that—’

‘The trouble with Alice is that she’s a domineering bitch!’ Toby cut in hotly. ‘I think it’s time I had a word with Alice.’

‘No, Toby,’ Melody said in alarm, ‘please, please don’t.’

They slipped between two deserted rows of bookshelves.

‘I’m getting fed up, that’s all,’ Toby said, slipping an arm around her waist.

‘I know, but please let me handle, Alice,’ Melody murmured, lifting her face for a kiss, and as their lips met she melted into him and felt his hard cock press against her, all thoughts of Alice slipping away for a moment.

Unfortunately, before she had time to protest his hands dropped from her waist to slip under the skirt and explore her bottom. Melody gasped with discomfort as his palms pressed the cane welts, and Toby pulled his head back and stared at her in confusion.

‘Bloody hell, Melody,’ he hissed, steering her round with a firm hand and lifting the skirt to reveal her striped bottom, ‘what the fuck is this?’

Melody was reluctant to go home, but she didn’t dare not to. She had, she thought, calmed Toby enough before she left him, but it was hard to tell. He had been in quite a state. He was horrified, but also seemed sort of fascinated by her welted bottom. Certainly he’d not been so horrified that it risked putting him off her. The dress probably played its part, but Toby was so horny in the library she was only surprised he hadn’t ejaculated in his pants!

He had stalked off to the toilets, walking rather oddly, and Melody took the chance to slip away. Horribly aware of the stares she was drawing as walked out of the library on her high heels, she went back across the park as quickly as she could.

‘There you are,’ Alice greeted her. ‘Had a good day at college?’ Dressed in her usual tight black top and tartan skirt, she was leafing through the property pages in the newspaper.

‘No,’ Melody said, determined to confront her. ‘Everybody stared at me. It was embarrassing.’

‘No
Aunt Alice
,’ the woman emphasised sternly. ‘Do you really want me to put you over the horse again so soon?’

Melody stared defiantly, although she knew the threat would be carried out if she provoked the urbane woman too much. ‘No, Aunt Alice,’ she muttered wisely, hating herself for crumbling so easily. ‘Toby saw the state of my bottom, and now I don’t know what he’s going to do.’

‘Show off your stripes, did you? What a little tart you are. Perhaps I’ll have to consider getting a chastity belt made for you.’

Melody felt her stomach knot. It might have been a joke, but then she never knew for sure with Alice.

‘Anyway, take a shower,’ Alice went on breezily. ‘I’ve been shopping and have some lovely new clothes for you.’

Melody’s stomach did another little flip. Whatever the new clothes were she would bet they were embarrassing or indecent. She hesitated, trying to find the courage to defy her malevolent cousin, but failed again.

‘Come on, spit-spot,’ Alice chided, clapping her hands sharply. ‘Unless you really do want another taste of Aunty Alice’s stick.’

‘But what’s that?’ she asked incredulously, looking at the thing Alice held up.

‘It’s a gag, silly. It will put a stop to all that unnecessary squawking.’

Melody stared in horror. The new clothes were every bit as bad as she’d feared. There was a black satin corset, which pushed her breasts up in quarter cups that failed to cover her nipples. Alice gave her little to dwell on this exposure, however, lacing her so tightly into the thing that Melody thought she might faint.

Six suspender straps were attached to the bottom of the corset, over which was a frilly trim of several layers of black lace. The corset was so tight, and so stiffly boned, that Alice had to help her smooth on a pair of sheer black stockings. The suspenders held them taut, so high that at the back the stocking welts came up almost to her bottom, stopping just below the sulcal groove.

‘Now, that’s better,’ Alice purred, spinning Melody round to look at her. ‘I shall have to shave you at some time, but those little golden curls do look lovely in their new frame.’

‘Please, Alice, it’s too tight—’

‘Stop whining!’ the woman snapped. ‘You’re going to look delicious.’

The rest of the new outfit was simply accessories. Highly polished black court shoes with impossibly high heels and a band secured with a little padlock around the ankle, would have made walking a trial even without the short chain that connected the ankle bands together. There was a leather collar, with a gleaming D-ring at the front equipped with a padlock. The collar had matching wristbands, which once locked into position Alice gleefully used to cuff Melody’s hands helplessly behind her back. A little white apron came next, and Alice tied it around her cousin’s corseted waist.

‘Can you guess what it is yet?’ she asked, picking up something white and lacy. ‘You see, this is a little French maid’s cap. I thought you might like to help pay for your keep by doing a little housework.’

This was just too ridiculous. ‘How can I do housework in this silly, impractical outfit?’ Melody asked indignantly. ‘I can barely move and I can barely breathe.’

‘Tsk, always complaining, Melody,’ Alice said. ‘Still, never mind, I have just the remedy for that.’ And then she produced the gag.

‘No, I won’t, you can’t, it’s—!’

Smiling menacingly Alice took hold of one of Melody’s nipples between her talon-like fingers and gave the little nub of flesh a wicked tweak. With her hands bound behind her, Melody could do nothing but cry out in pain, and as her mouth opened the ball-gag was pressed between her lips.

‘There now, that was not so difficult, was it?’ Alice said. ‘I am disappointed in your disobedience, though. I shall have to punish you for that later.’

‘Mmmmppfff,’ Melody protested futilely. ‘Muff! Mfffle!’

‘Sorry, sweetie, for some reason I can’t understand you,’ Alice mocked. ‘But you really do look very fetching. I must take some photographs of you. But first…’ Alice produced a chain dog leash with a leather loop to hold, which she clipped to the ring at the front of Melody’s collar.

‘Come along with me, now,’ she ordered. ‘I should get ready, too. You can keep me company while I’m dressing.’

Emitting some muffled squeals, which were the only possible protests she could make, Melody was forced to follow Alice. The hobbling chain between her ankles forced tiny, rapid steps whilst the precipitous heels made it all but impossible to walk, but somehow she tottered along the hall to Alice’s room.

There were some expensive looking bags on the king-sized bed; clearly Alice had enjoyed a busy day’s shopping while Melody was being humiliated at college.

The room had two walls lined with floor to ceiling wardrobes, completely covered in mirrors, and the glimpse of a wide-eyed, gagged, bound and corseted girl wearing a maid’s cap and apron, brought the colour back to Melody’s cheeks, but there was little she could do but try to keep her balance.

‘I spent a ludicrous amount of money this morning,’ Alice said in a conspiratorial tone, ‘but looking at you, I think it was worth it. Now let’s see about me.’

Without Melody to help her Alice struggled for a moment or two with the zip at the back of her tight sweater. But she got it down and slipped the garment off, exposing her breasts held neatly in a black satin bra, which came off too and revealed her magnificent breasts. The skirt followed, as did the suspender belt and panties, and Alice stood in nothing but her hold-up stockings. She placed her hands on her hips, feet apart, and admired herself frankly in the mirrors. It was evident that she did not just use the exercise room for caning her pretty cousin. She idly let her hand stroke down her belly, which was flat and sleekly muscled, and when her fingers reached the neatly trimmed triangle of dark curls between her toned thighs, she stroked herself for a moment.